Ensuring equity in education in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh is now in its second year of implementing the clause in the Right to Education Act that mandates private institutions to admit children from poor economic backgrounds. The initiative is seen as a step towards giving all children a fair chance

Palakiti Joji’s eyes light up at the prospect of sending his six-year-old daughter Blessy to one of the top private schools in Vijayawada city.

Joji is a daily wage worker in the construction sector and lives at Lakgudem, which is a stone’s throw from the Kankipadu mandal headquarters in Krishna district. The village is inhabited mostly by people belonging to the Scheduled Castes. and are either migrant labourers or those who make a living by selling plastic toys, or fruits and vegetables. The place presents a grim picture of families at the lower end of the social and economic ladder.

“I cannot afford my child’s education in a private school as the fees are very high. But now it seems possible, thanks to the government initiative,” Joji says, smiling faintly. He is 34, but living through poverty, he seems to be ageing prematurely.

Blessy is Joji and his wife Mounika’s middle child. She has two siblings— Sarvanand, 8, goes to a government school and Akash, 4, gets dropped off at the nearby Anganwadi centre, a child and mother care centre run as part of the Centrally-sponsored Integrated Child Development Services scheme.

Blessy is excited about her ‘big school’ where her mother has gone to enquire about the date of commencement of the classes. She is among the 26,279 children selected for admission in private schools in Andhra Pradesh for free education under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, for the academic year 2023-24. This increased from the 2,157 admissions made in the last year when the government first began implementing the clause.

Under Section 12 (1) (C), private unaided (by the government) schools must provide free and compulsory education to children from disadvantaged sections by admitting them in at least one-fourth of the total strength of Class-I or preschool education. Andhra Pradesh is in the second year of implementing the clause.

Before Blessy’s family received the good news though, the School Education Department in the State had gone through a marathon session of identifying the children.